This invention relates to electrically commutated motors, and more particularly, to methods and approaches used to control the operating characteristics of an electrically commutated motor.
Electrically commutated motors (ECMs) are used in a wide variety of systems operating in a wide variety of industries. As such, the ECMs are subject to many operating conditions and often, the operating conditions necessitate that the operating characteristics of the ECM be changed to match the requirements of the associated application (i.e. different speeds or airflow requirements for heating, cooling, and constant fan for residential HVAC applications). Because of the complexity of the many possible desired operating characteristics, it may be difficult to remove an ECM from one system for installation in another system. More specifically, the ECM control circuits and interfaces must typically be changed to enable the ECM to be used with different operating characteristics in different applications.
The ECM configuration problem may be further complicated when motor manufacturers produce a base motor and then develop a product line of motors with different operating characteristics based upon the base motor. Changing motor characteristics, such as, variable speed, for example, may require time-consuming changes of the control circuit or motor internals. Accordingly, many different components must be designed, manufactured, and stocked to manufacture motors with different operating characteristics based on the base motor product line. Designing, manufacturing, and stocking different parts is more expensive than designing, manufacturing, and stocking one standardized part which can be programmed for many different applications or coupled with different modules to satisfy the needs of different applications.